8-6-52: Old Satch spins a gem at 46

Topps couldn't get his named spelled right on his 1952 baseball card, but Satchel Paige put a spell on the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 6, 1952, with a shutout at age 46 for the St. Louis Browns.

Virgil Trucks, who threw two no-hitters and a one-hitter for the Detroit Tigers in 1952, allowed six hits and no runs over nine innings but had nothing to show for it in a 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 6, 1952. That was typical of the hard luck Trucks had in a 5-19 season.

By Phil Ellenbecker
  Holy Mother of Methuselah!

  Satchel Paige, that ageless wonder of baseball, may have been at his most wondrously ageless on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 1952, when at age 46, he threw a seven-hit, 12-inning shutout with a major league career-high nine strikeouts in a 1-0 decision over the Detroit Tigers.

  Only 6,162 were on hand at Sportsman's Park to witness one of the few highlights Browns fans had to savor, perhaps the highlight, of their last few years (excepting perhaps the midget Eddie Gaedel coming up to bat in 1951) before they moved out of town after the 1953 season.

  The smattering of fans watching the American League's two worst teams were treated to a pitcher's duel between Paige, by this time existing mainly on guile, and Tigers' flamethrower Virgil Trucks, who was in the midst of one of the most hard-luck seasons in baseball history.

  The teams' major metro newspapers gushed about what they'd witnessed, as told by Gregory H. Wolf in his lively account of the game carried on the Society of Baseball Research's Baseball Games Project website.

  “Never was Paige more tantalizing,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said. “(He) wins games (and) entertains in the process.  He whirled his arm twice in a full windup; sometimes just once. His slow ball ... seemed to hang in the air, as though manipulated by wire.”

  “[Paige] unwound his ancient right arm,” said the Detroit Free Press, and “proved himself the master.”

  Of besting Trucks, the Free Press said of Paige, "He outpitched one of the standouts of the decade."

  The game was decided when Bob Nieman, a career .295 hitter, delivered a two-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 12th to score Bobby Young.

  It's a good thing the Browns managed that run when they did. Otherwise, Paige's masterful performance would have gone as a no-decision. That's because Browns manager Marty Marion pinch hit for Paige in the 12th after Young's leadoff single, a carom off the glove of second baseman Al Federoff, and a sacrifice by Fred Marsh.

  Al Zarilla stepped in for Paige and looked at an intentional walk from Hal White, who'd relieved Trucks after Trucks was pinch hit for in the 10th. Gordon Goldsberry grounded into the second out of the inning on a slow roller, with Young and Marsh advancing to third and second and setting up another intentional walk, this one to Ray Coleman.

  Nieman, who led Browns regulars at .289 in '52 with career highs in homers (18) and RBIs (74) in the rookie season of a 12-year career, then came through with the game-winner, a rope over shortstop Neil Berry's head, ending the game in 3 hours, 1 minute.

Bob Nieman, in his rookie season, singled with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th inning to give Satchel Paige and the St. Louis Browns a 1-0, 12-inning shutout of the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 6, 1952. Nieman batted .282 that year and .295 in a 12-year major league career.

  It took every bit of that Old Satch Magic to take the game this far after the Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in the 10th. Cliff Mapes got things started with a double, the only extra-base hit Paige allowed. A walk to Joe Ginsberg and a bunt single by Federoff then soaked the sacks.

  Johnny Pesky, picked up from Boston this summer after a standout eight-year career at shortstop and third base with the Red Sox, batted for Trucks and sent a sharp grounder to Young at first, who went home to catcher Clint Courtney for the force-out. Paige, dubbed "Old Mr. Unbelievable" by the United Press," then coaxed another fielder's choice grounder, this one from Johnny Groth going from Jim Dyck on a hard bouncer to third to Courtney. Berry then looked at a third strike, and Satchel had survived.

   “Three very fast, sharp breaking curves,” wrote the Post-Dispatch of Paige's face-off with Berry. “Each one started for Neil Berry’s chest, then broke right over the heart of the plate.”

  "(Paige) broke the Tigers' spirit," the Post-Dispatch said of the way the wily right-hander had squeezed out of the jam.

  Paige, in the longest outing of his major league career, retired the Tigers 1-2-3 in the last two innings as he ran his record to 8-6. He allowed only one runner into scoring position in the first nine innings. Besides the seven hits, he allowed only two walks, displaying what the Free Press described as "unusually bafflng control."

  Paige was helped out by Courtney, who besides going 3-for-5 threw out would-be base stealers in each of the first two innings. It was generally a poor day for base running, as the Browns had a runner caught stealing and picked off and neither team had a successful stolen-base attempt.

  Paige hurt his best chance at getting himself some runs in regulation by hitting into a first-to-catcher-back to first double play on a sharp grounder to Walt Dropo with none out and the bases loaded in the second. The Browns had only one base runner in scoring position after that until the 12th.

  In the postgame aftermath, Paige said, "I told Marty that I had 100 outs in my arm last night and I sure used them all up. I made up my mind that there wasn’t gonna be no morning workout," he continued, making reference to manager’s Marion’s practice of holding early-morning practices after losses.

    "This is the greatest baseball thrill I have had in many years," said Browns owner Bill Veeck, who'd brought Paige into the major leagues at age 42 as owner with Cleveland in 1948 and brought him back, after the Indians had released Paige, in 1951 when Veeck bought the Browns.

  “I was thinking of ‘Old Burrhead’ (Paige’s pet name for Veeck) when I was going through those extra innings,” Paige said of perhaps his biggest booster.  

  Meanwhile, the Tigers' Trucks was left to ponder once again what more he had to do. He allowed six hits, struck out nine and survived six walks in his nine-inning stint as he took a no-decision.

  At least it wasn't a loss, something "Fire" inhaled far too often in a 5-19 season. Amazingly, his five wins included two no-hitters and a one-hitter. In his other two wins, he allowed two hits in 7 2-3 innings and six hits in 9 innings. The Tigers scored 0, 1 or 2 runs in 15 of his starts. (Despite all this, Trucks' ERA was a none-too-sparkling 3.96 on the year.)

  As for Leroy Robert Paige, Old Satch finished the season 12-10 with a 3.07 ERA, his most productive major league season. He  added a shutout on Sept. 9, the last of his four whitewashings in the major leagues. Earlier in the season he had a 27 1/3 scoreless-inning string over 12 relief appearances, May 8-June 11.

  Paige went 3-9 with a 3.53 ERA in 1953, his final year in the majors except for a three-inning scoreless stint at age 59, in a publicity stunt for the Charley Finley-led Kansas City A's in 1965.  Paige had stayed active in the minor leagues after '53, and his last year in organized baseball was 1966.

  The Negro League legend, who most assuredly threw and won more games than anybody in baseball history, went 28-31 with a 3.29 ERA in six years in the majors, with All-Star selections in '52 and '53.

   All in all, a truly amazing career, and perhaps he was never more amazing than on Aug. 6, 1952. 

  

  Sources: The Retrosheet account of the game at https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B08060SLA1952.htm provided he basic play-by-play of this story, enhanced by the detailed account by Gregory H. Wolf  for the Society for American Baseball Research Games Project at  https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-6-1952-satch-turns-back-time-spin-12-inning-shutout-against-tigers. Background was mainly supplied by various sources on the Retrosheet and SABR Biography Project sites.